Grants

Grants are considered “gift aid” and therefore do not need to be repaid. They are intended to assist students who have not yet earned or met the requirements for a first bachelor’s degree (with the exception of the TEACH Grant) and who are attending school at least part time.

Federal Pell Grant

A Federal Pell Grant, unlike a loan, does not have to be repaid. Pell Grants are awarded usually only to undergraduate students who have not earned a bachelor’s or a professional degree. (In some cases, however, a student enrolled in a post-baccalaureate teacher certification program might receive a Pell Grant.) Pell Grants are considered a foundation of federal financial aid, to which aid from other federal and non-federal sources might be added.

Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant Program

Through the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007, Congress created the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant Program that provides grants of up to $4,000 per year to students who intend to teach in a public or private elementary or secondary school that serves students from low-income families. If, after reading all of the information on this fact sheet, you are interested in learning more about the TEACH Grant Program, you should contact the financial aid office at the college where you will be enrolled starting with the 2016-2017 school year.

Conditions

In exchange for receiving a TEACH Grant, you must agree to serve as a full-time teacher in a high-need field in a public or private elementary or secondary school that serves low-income students (see below for more information on high-need fields and schools serving low-income students). As a recipient of a TEACH Grant, you must teach for at least four academic years within eight calendar years of completing the program of study for which you received a TEACH Grant. IMPORTANT: If you fail to complete this service obligation, all amounts of the TEACH Grants that you received will be converted to a Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loan. You must then repay this loan to the U.S. Department of Education. You will be charged interest from the date the grant(s) was disbursed.

Student Eligibility Requirements

To receive a TEACH Grant you must:

1 . Complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), although you do not have to demonstrate financial need.
2 . Be a U.S. Citizen or eligible non-citizen.
3 . Be enrolled as an undergraduate, post-baccalaureate, or graduate student in a post-secondary educational institution that has chosen to participate in the TEACH Grant Program.
4 . Be enrolled in coursework that is necessary to begin a career in teaching or plan to complete such coursework. Such coursework may include subject area courses (e.g., math courses for a student who intends to be a math teacher).
5 . Meet certain academic achievement requirements (generally, scoring above the 75th percentile on a college admissions test or maintaining a cumulative GPA of at least 3.25).
6. Sign a TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve (see below for more information on the TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve).

High-Need Field

High-need fields are the specific subject areas identified below:

1 Bilingual Education and English Language Acquisition.
2 Foreign Language.
3 Mathematics.
4 Reading Specialist.
5 Science.
6 Special Education.
7 Other identified teacher shortage areas as of the time you begin teaching in that field. These are teacher subject shortage areas (not geographic areas) that are listed in the Department of Education’s Annual Teacher Shortage Area Nationwide Listing at http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/pol/tsa.doc.

TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve

Each year you receive a TEACH Grant, you must sign a TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve that will be available electronically on a Department of Education Web site. The TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve specifies the conditions under which the grant will be awarded, the teaching service requirements, and includes an acknowledgment by you that you understand that if you do not meet the teaching service requirements you must repay the grant as a Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan, with interest accrued from the date the grant funds were disbursed. Specifically, the TEACH Grant Agreement to Serve will provide that –

For each TEACH Grant-eligible program for which you received TEACH Grant funds, you must serve as a full-time teacher for a total of at least four academic years within eight calendar years after you completed or withdrew from the academic program for which you received the TEACH Grant.

You must perform the teaching service as a highly-qualified teacher at a low-income school. The term highly-qualified teacher is defined in section 9101(23) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 or in section 602(10) of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act.

Your teaching service must be in a high-need field.

You must comply with any other requirements that the Department of Education determines to be necessary.

If you do not complete the required teaching service obligation, TEACH Grant funds you received will be converted to a Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loan that you must repay, with interest charged from the date of each TEACH Grant disbursement.

Additional Guidance and Implementing Regulations The Department of Education will publish regulations to implement the TEACH Grant Program after providing an opportunity for public comment in accordance with legal requirements.

IMPORTANT REMINDER

If you receive a TEACH Grant but do not complete the required teaching service, as explained above, you will be required to repay the grants as a Federal Direct Unsubsidized Stafford Loan, with interest charged from the date of each TEACH Grant disbursement.

Toward Excellence, Access & Success Grant (TEXAS)

The TEXAS Grant is a state grant program available to Texas residents who graduated from a Texas high school no earlier than fall 1998. Recipients must have also completed the recommended or advanced high school curriculum or its equivalent. Need must be established by filing the FAFSA.

If you received a TEXAS Grant Initial or Renewal during the 2016 – 2017 school year you are required to meet the following:

Renewal Recipients: Sophomore Year and beyond
1. Your cumulative academic GPA is 2.5 or higher
2. You have earned at least 24 credit hours during the 2016 – 2017 school year
3. Your overall cumulative attempted hours is not greater than 150

Texas Public Education Grant (TPEG)

TPEG is for undergraduates with exceptional financial need. Pell Grant recipients with the lowest EFCs will be the first to get the Texas Public Education Grant. Just like Pell Grants and FSEOG, TPEG does not have to be paid back.

Texas Application for State Financial Aid (TASFA)

If you intend to enroll for the 2016 – 2017 school year and your residency status has not changed, please submit your completed 2016 – 2017 TASFA by March 15, 2016. Applications will be accepted after March 15, 2016, but we strongly encourage that you submit the TASFA along with any required documentation by then.

If you received a TEXAS Grant Initial or Renewal during the 2016 – 2017 school year you are required to meet the following:

Renewal Recipients: Sophomore Year and beyond
1. Your cumulative academic GPA is 2.5 or higher
2. You have earned at least 24 credit hours during the 2016 – 2017 school year
3. Your overall cumulative attempted hours is not greater than 150

To access the 2016 – 2017 TASFA form, please visit the forms library (2016 – 2017 Forms) on the Financial Aid webpage or visit College For All Texans http://www.collegeforalltexans.com

Please remember to utilize Panther Pass when submitting documentation. This feature allows you to upload documents and can be accessed by logging into PV PLACE.